


Killer Queen

by gives_you_hell



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-12 21:49:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29516274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gives_you_hell/pseuds/gives_you_hell
Summary: The BAU is called by the CIA to asist in an old case, a case that may be a lot closer to them than what they think.
Relationships: Spencer Reid/Original Character(s), Still haven't decided - Relationship
Comments: 8
Kudos: 20





	1. Chapter 1

Another week, another case, the team had just landed from back in Virginia after spending a week chasing after a killer who liked to cut off people’s tongues. It wasn’t exactly low key, but they were able to narrow down the suspect pool fast. In the end it was one of those cases that faded into the background. Now back in the office, Spencer just had to complete some paperwork and finish up some consultations before he could go home and sleep. There is nothing he wanted more than that right now. Really, he hoped that any serial killers that were out there decided to take a day off. But of course life didn’t give him what he wanted, because Hotch had just been called to his office and by the looks of it, it was big. 

“What do you think that’s about?” said Morgan, making a gesture towards Hotch office. 

“No idea.” responded Emily, “Garcia do you know anything about it.” 

“If it’s a case it didn’t come through me, that means that is either personal or something internal, you see that guy in with Hotch is supposedly CIA” 

This got Spencer’s attention. 

“CIA, what could they possibly want?” 

“Well, we know from experience that it can’t be good, let’s just hope it isn’t another mole.”

Just when he finished saying that Rossi got out from his office and made a signal for everyone to come. 

“Come on, Hotch is calling everyone to the briefing room.” 

They all got up and walked towards the briefing room without saying anything else. Whatever this was about, it seemed important. They took their usual places around the table and waited for Hotch to enter. There was a tense area, since no one knew what this was about. Spencer just hoped that it was just the CIA being overly cautious, but the chances of it were really slim. The worst thing that could happen right now is to be swallowed again by a CIA operation, more after his last one didn’t end on the best terms. But he didn’t have the chance to fall into that particular rabbit hole because in that precise moment Hotch entered. Morgan was the first to talk. 

“What is this about? We’ve got a case?” 

“Yes, but I don’t have the details yet. We’ve been invited into a private investigation by the CIA, the case is highly classified, I don’t have the details about it yet, the Director said that we will be briefed there.” 

“Do we even know what it is about?” Spencer said. 

“We only know that it’s related to an old case.” 

This got Spencer worried, but he was sure if he had anything to do about it he would have been informed already. He probably was in the clear. He should still check his phone to be sure, but what were the chances of the team getting back together.

“Are we even sure it’s safe.” asked JJ a bit alarmed, he really didn’t like all this secrecy. Hotch just shrugged in return, he didn’t have an answer to give to her. Now was Emily who asked the next question. 

“Where are we going to be briefed?” 

“We will meet with the director in the Langley offices, we’ll be leaving in ten minutes and grab your go bags. Garcia you will also be joining us.” 

And this is when all of Reid's hopes went to shit, why would they meet in Langley, his chances of this being something else were getting slimmer with every moment. He needed to get his backup phone to be sure but he really had a bad feeling about this. As soon as Hotch gave the clear to go he went to his satchel bag to look for his phone, no one had signaled anything, so it was either too new and he was gonna be one of the first to find out, or something really bad had happened. Or best case scenario, something that never happened to him with his luck, it is completely unrelated. He was considering risking it and sending a text to the others, but at that moment Morgan appeared beside his desk, he barely had the time to put the phone back on his bag. 

“Pretty boy, we don’t want to keep them waiting.” 

Well, it seemed like he would go in blind, it could actually be worse. And that was probably a lie. He just took his place on the black suv and hoped for the best. Trying to keep his mind from making random calculations and probabilities. It was pointless to consume so much energy on it if he didn’t have any information to base it on, but he couldn’t help it. 

The drive was mostly silent, everyone was immersed in their own head trying to figure out what this could be about, it was strange for them to be called in without having had any sort of information on the matter since their job was pretty straightforward: they studied behaviour. So the real question is whose behaviour they are gonna study. Arriving at the building they parked, there was nothing special about it, it was a plain yellow brick building, and there was an agent outside, probably waiting for them. He just looked like the typical guy in a suit. He approached them and presented himself. 

“My name is Agent Pence, I was asked by the director to show you to the conference room.” 

“Great, I’m SSA. Hotchner and this is my team, agents Morgan, Prentiss, Jareau, Rossi and Dr Reid. There is also our technical analyst Garcia.” He shook hands with everyone but Reid. Then he took out some identification badges from his jacket. 

“Please wear this at all times and follow me.” 

They entered the building, and after swiping the cards on the main entrance they entered a big atrium, there weren’t many agents around, which was common since this is a secondary location. They followed him around some ransom hallways until they reached a pair of wooden doors.

“The director is waiting for you inside. Be sure to leave all of the objects to have on yourself in the middle room, especially phones. Good luck.” and with that the Guy left walking the opposite direction. 

Hotch ignored him and proceeded to open the door. Inside there was a small room that had a series of lockers. Each of them proceed towards one of them putting all of their stuff inside and grabbing the key. Then they went into the second room. The director was in fact pacing around, apparently waiting for them. 

“Take a seat we have a lot to discuss.” Each of them grabbed a random seat. “We have a highly sensitive case on our hands, one in which your team expertise would be really useful.” 

“We still don’t know anything about it.”

“Well you are about to. See years ago there was a special operation team with the CIA who took high risk operations. The team was dissolved a while ago, and each of their members were relocated to different governmental organisations. But since these people handle sensitive information we keep tabs on them. Recently there had been voices of people who were trying to gain intel on the members of said team.” 

“But that is fairly common, what is the actual treat.” Emily said, and she was right, there were always people trying to gain information on undercover agents and past operations, what could be so special about this particular one. 

“Because it seems like the one looking for the intel has gotten a lot more desperate, and fear there may be an attempt on the lives of the members.” He grabbed a remote control and turned on the TV in the room. Spencer immediately recognised the dead man in the photos and this was bad, he couldn’t believe he was dead. “Two days ago, Roger Clafton was found executed in his apartment, he was one of the team supervisors; and a week ago,” he changed pictures to one of a different crime scene, “Linda Spears was found dead the same way, she was one of the team trainers.” 

Spencer couldn't believe what he was seeing was far worse than anything that he could ever imagine. They were dead. He knew this day may come eventually, but to atack external members, were they looking for information or were they just taunting them, that was for sure one of the first things they needed to establish, or they could very well end up walking into a trap. 

“Have the members of the team been contacted.” Rossi said, “and are you sure that none of them count as a suspect.” 

“We are sure that none of them are involved in this, in fact they are the targets of the atack. We are contacting them, and they should be all here in the following hours. We couldn’t risk the possibility of being bugged so they had been contacted personally, once they all of them are here we will proceed with the debrief and your role in this operation is going to be a lot clearer. For now you can proceed to your rooms. These are the case files for the first two murders, feel free to study them to give us your first impression. Dr Reid can I have a word with you?” 

They all looked surprised at that, but Spencer just shrugged, not giving it much importance. After they all had left Spencer got up from his seat and started pacing around the room. 

“Why weren’t we informed the second that Linda was murdered.” He was honestly a bit mad about the whole thing. 

“We wanted to keep it under covers until we were sure about what we were dealing with, you know how big this is.” 

“I know how dangerous it is, why would you involve my team.” 

“Because they are the best at their job, and this case will need a fresh pair of eyes.” 

Spencer wanted to protest, he didn’t appreciate putting hi8s family at risk. But the Director was right. They would be a great help. 

“I suppose by their reactions that you haven’t told them.” 

“Not like I could, but I think now is inevitable.” 

“I would appreciate if you were to keep it secret until the briefing” 

“Why?” 

“Better to do it in a controlled environment.” 

“Is that really your greatest concern right now.” 

“I just want them to be rational for the time being.” 

“I don’t really know what you hope to accomplish” 

“Just humour me for old times sake” 

Spencer decided to leave it, he will not argue about this. 

“I suppose I’m the first one here.” 

“You are correct, how?”

“The group chat was silent when we left.” 

“Are you admitting to having an illegal channel of communication.” 

“I didn’t say anything of the sorts. I just hope this doesn’t turn into a mess.” 

“I think it already is. Are you ready to get the team together again” 

“Not for this.”


	2. Chapter 2

On the other side of the building the rest of the team was sitting in the cafeteria. They were waiting for Reid to get back so they could go over the case files. 

“What could he possibly want with Reid?” Said Rossi. He had a bad feeling about this whole thing but he couldn't explain it, he just felt like they were out of the loop. He for sure didn’t like being played at, so he did not appreciate this secrecy. 

“I don’t know, but he didn’t look surprised about it, it was almost like he was waiting for it to happen.” Said Emily. 

“But he was shocked about the murders, so it’s impossible that he knew about any of this.” Concluded JJ. 

“Do you really think that he has anything to do with it.” 

“But Morgan you have to admit that it is highly unusual, he obviously said something that he didn’t want us to hear.”

“Yeah Hotch, but it’s probably nerd stuff.”

“Or they want to recruit him” added Garcia, “Do you think they want to take him away from the BAU, but they wouldn’t leave us.” She sounded a bit worried, but Hotch stopped her before she could start a rant. 

“I’m pretty sure that Spencer isn’t leaving the BAU, and that when he arrives he will tell us what was that about. Now we should start revising the case, that’s why we are here.” Everyone opened their case file and Penelope opened her laptop, so they could start their usual discussions and brainstorming. “What do we know about the victims?”

Morgan started, “Roger Clafton had retired recently, two months ago after 30 years of working for the CIA, his last assignment was on foreing intelligence. While Linda Spears was an active agent who specialized in training new agents. They both had been working for the CIA for years and had a fairly normal background. Roger was a widower without kids and Linda was single.” 

“Garcia any suspicious activity in the background.” 

“Not that I can tell, they don’t have any suspicious accounts or money movements, they are not very present on social media, but that is fairly common with agents.” 

“What about strange messages they may have received, or someone they had been in contact with.” asked Emily. 

“Nothing in their personal accounts, and from what I can tell they do not have any weird aliases either, their computers and cellphones are normal, nothing out of the ordinary.” 

“The nature of the crime seems to be highly personal, they were probably looking up to him when he pulled the trigger, so he wanted to watch them die.” added Rossi while looking at the crime scene pictures. 

“The ME report says there were signs of torture, that could back up the directors theory about him being looking for information.” concluded JJ. 

“Or he could just be sadistic and enjoys making them suffer before pulling the trigger.” responded Morgan. 

“Or both.” added Rossi. “He maybe enjoys the torture but it also works for a higher purpose, because no matter what they said it doesn’t seem like he was going to spare them. These murders seem charged with rage.” 

:) 

Spencer was sitting in a big office, it was on the sixth floor so he could see the green patches of grass from the big windows. He had been sitting there for quite a while, he had already listed all the objects inside three times. A big desk with an office chair behind it and two guest chairs on the front. There was nothing on it, just the computer monitor. The walls were covered in book cases, some with wooks, some with archived files, and in the far end of the office there were two couches with a small coffee table. After pacing for almost ten minutes he proceeded to sit there to wait. He was really happy about seeing his old team, it’s not like they haven’t seen each other in all these years, but it certainly wasn’t easy. They kept contact through the years, after all the missions they had been on it was impossible to just cut all ties. He just had a sense of dread inside mixed with a weird deja vu. He felt like things were going to get really bad again, and last time they barely managed. It’s partly the reason why they were dissolved, not that he regrets it, it took him to find his new family. He just hopes that this time things will end differently. That’s when the door opened, Spencer looked up and when he saw who was walking towards him he smiled and got up to hug him. 

“Luca.”

“Spence how-” but before he could say anything someone else interrupted.

“I see you two started the party without us.”

“Actually you are all late, I’ve been here for hours.” said Spencer.

“Aww poor baby” said Zoe mocking him. Then she went up to him to hug him. Then he went to say hello to Michael. 

“How are things man?”

“Well if we are meeting here not so good” and with that the last member was officially here. 

“Clara, late as always.”

After they had all exchanged hugs they went to sit on the couch that Spencer was previously sitting on. It had been years since they had been in the field together but they still looked the same. Sometimes it felt like they had never left. 

“Spence you’ve been here the longest, what do you know.” Michael was the first to break the silence. 

“You sure are all work, glad you know that you haven’t changed a bit.” Clara interjected rapidly. 

“Yeah aren’t you curious to know what we’ve been up to.” 

“I know what you’ve been up to, Luca, don't act all saint now. This is serious, and I don’t want it to end like last time.”

Spencer decided to intervene before this could turn into a real fight. “Linda and Roger are dead, they were tortured and shot execution style, Roger a week ago and Linda a few days ago” 

“Why are we only hearing about this now.” Zoe questioned.

“Don’t know, they had been keeping it underground, not many people know about their deaths.” 

“Are we really considering the possibility that she is back.”

“Be rational Michael she is dead, there is no way.” Clara responded. She was right, they had buried her, they knew she was dead. 

“My life will not end at my death.” 

“What are you talking about Spencer.”

“That’s the last thing she told me.” 

“And what are you implying.” The team was looking at him expectantly. 

“It’s true that we brought down the whole organization, but we never found her backup.”

“And we were all sure that she had one.” Luca finished his point. 

“But that only opens more questions, why now? It has been years.” Zoe said, pointing out the question that everyone had been thinking about. They fell silent for a moment, no one had answers for this. It was Luca who broke the silence. 

“The director said something about your team being called in to help Spence.” 

“Yeah they are here, they still don’t know about anything. They had only seen the case files.” 

“You haven’t told them?” Zoe asked. 

“Not yet, the director asked me not to. I think he wanted them to see the case with unbiased eyes, but it’s only a matter of time before they find out.” 

“Man this is like worlds colliding for you.” 

And Spencer really didn’t know how to respond to that. A small part of him had always hoped that these two parts of his life would never touch.

“Don’t worry Spence, we will solve this one. We just have to tackle this like we confronted all of our operations.” 

:) 

The lights of the house turned on for the first time in years. The safe house hasn’t been opened for years but everything was exactly how it was left. The photos, the books, the plans, the expectations; she felt a great wave of melancholy about being back here. She stopped right before the chimney, their last moment together had been right there. And just like the memories came, they went. This wasn’t the time for memories, she will have plenty of time for this when this would be over. Now was the time for revenge, but it was bigger than that. All of their plans together had always led to this moment. She was a bit frustrated and embarrassed that it had taken her this long, but perfection can’t be rushed and there were certain setbacks that they hadn’t anticipated. She started tapping on the wall behind the chimney until she found the point. She grabbed the handle and opened the door, there she found the safe. It was time, let the games begin.


	3. Chapter 3

The BAU didn’t have much to work with, they didn’t even have all the intel yet, but they had made profiles with much less. For now they had decided to pretend that it was a normal case, that they were in the jet discussing a new case and this was the only information the police had gathered, pretending they weren’t in a CIA building with Reid god knows where. They had done their best and now could only wait for the briefing to complete it. And apparently the moment had come, the same guy that showed them inside went by the cafeteria to tell them the Director was waiting for them. 

“So we can assume that the rest of the super secret team made it here safe” said Morgan, a bit sarcastic. 

“Nobody said it was good news.” responded Rossi. 

“Let’s just hope that Spence is there.” 

“Don’t worry JJ, they probably just asked him to consult on something or got distracted by nerd stuff.” Emily tried her best to assure JJ. 

They re-entered the room with the lockers, left all their stuff and proceeded to the meeting room, to their surprise, like the last time, only the director was in there. There was no sign of the supposed team they were waiting for, or Spencer. 

“Aren’t we supposed to meet with the possible targets.” Asked Hotch when he saw the lack of people in the room. 

“You will shortly, but first I wanted to get you up to speed on who the members were. Well, let’s get started.” 

Penélope decided to ask the question that everyone had on their mind. “Don’t we have to wait for Reid.” 

“Don’t worry, Dr. Reid will join us shortly.” 

“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I’m comfortable not knowing where the members of my team are.” 

The director looked a bit exasperated with the delayal. “I can assure you that he is in the building working, now can we start with the briefing.” 

Morgan looked ready to protest, but Hotch decided to stop him, they really shouldn’t push it. 

“Please continue.” 

“This is highly sensitive information that will be revealed to you because we believe that your assets and abilities can be useful for the case. Menrva was a team of young scientists, they did research but also handled high risk operations for the CIA. They were basically a team of young promising people who had just finished their higher studies. The team was originally formed by six people, one of them left before the team was officially dissolved. The other five operatives are still alive and work in different branches of the US Government. One of the last operations that the team worked on was against a major group who targeted them specifically, in the end they managed to take down their leader, but the right hand was never found, we have reasons to believe that this could be their act of revenge.” 

“Is there any significance of the time, why wait so long to get revenge.” 

“This group is highly organized, they wouldn’t have acted until they were certain that they had everything under control.” 

“And what do you want us to do?”

“The only way to defeat this type of organization is getting ahead of them, we need to anticipate their moves, and that’s your speciality.” 

“To do that we will need details about the case so we will need to speak with them and get the details about the mission.” 

“Don’t worry, you will be working together in order to stop this before it escalates, again.”

The way he whispered again at the end was worrying, while they were all saying that the mission was successful, they felt like there was much to the story that they hadn’t told them yet, and those will be crucial for the profile. 

“From what I’ve heard about you, you start with victimology, so here they are.” He grabbed the tv control and turned it on. The picture of a man in his early thirties, with dark hair showed up. “This is Dr. Luca Esposito, mathematician.” The picture switched, this time it showed a woman with her blonde hair on a tight ponytail wearing glasses. “Dr. Zoe Night, chemist.” The picture changed again to a male with tanned skin and short hair. “Dr. Michael Crawford, biologist.” Then it came a woman with medium length brown hair and big eyes. “Dr. Clara Gomez, physicist and mathematician. And I believe you already know the last one Dr. Spencer Reid.” a recent photo of Spencer appeared on the screen. The director paused for a second to give them time to process the news. Out of all the things that he could say, that was in no one's list.. Morgan couldn't believe that couldn’t pass qualifications Reid could be a CIA operative. Hotch was surprised by the confidentiality of the operation that even the Unit Chief wasn’t informed. For Rossi it was a surprise but in the end he knew that it wasn’t that improbable, the kid had a lot of potential, surely someone else had also seen it. Emily understood what it was like to be part of this type of operations, she herself had done some of them. Garcia was just plain shocked, she thought that the FBI had been first and only job. JJ was just worried, if they decide to bring this to light after years it surely meant that it was bad. All of them had about a million questions, Derek looked ready to start with them but Hotch stopped him. It wasn’t the time. They will have a chance to talk with Spencer later and ask everything. Besides what would be the point of asking the man that hid all in the first place. Now they were called because they had a job to do. A job that suddenly became a lot more personal seeing that one of their own was a potential target, and they all knew that if one of them was threatened they would do everything in their power to protect them.

“This would be who we think are the targets of the attack, but don’t presume that these will be direct. Revenge may be one of their goals, it may even be their endgame, but if this is anything like the last time, they will try to cause as much collateral damage as possible.” 

“What do you mean by collateral damage?” The director’s worry it’s what put Rossi on high alert, they weren’t taking this lightly, which meant that it was not a simple assassin trying to get rid of a few remarkable individuals, it was much bigger. I know that to be able to assess the situation you will need the details of the case, a lot of the details are not on paper, so they will present it to you directly. I would appreciate it if you refrain from asking trivial questions at least until the end of the briefing.” he finished with a pointed look, directed specially to Morgan who looked ready to grill his coworker and friend the second he entered the room. The director pressed a button on the phone that was on the table and a few minutes later the people they just saw the pictures of entered the room, they were chatting between them, almost seemed like they were catching up or having a conversation between old friends. After feeling the serious aura of the room each proceed to an empty chair. Spencer looked at the team to see what he could get from their expressions, he hoped that no one was mad that he lied, not like he had any other option, he just hoped that they didn't get too worried. He probably should say something, but he didn’t know what so he opted to do an awkward smile. The team didn’t answer much, but he could almost see a bit of fondness on Hotch's face.

The man that was presented as Luca was the first to talk. “I’m pretty sure that the director has already presented us, and we all know your team, so we can skip those formalities. I’m also sure that you all have been informed of the importance of this case, we really can afford to waste any time. You’ve been brought in as a consulting team to help us predict the next moves, seeing as your team has had a lot of success in cases like this. I was, well at this point I think am,” he said looking back at the director, “the team leader. As you know we officially worked as a research unit, we had a laboratory where we worked on both singular and group projects according to our area of expertise. On the side we worked with counterintelligence in operations against crime organizations and extremist groups. We infiltrated ranks to get intel. This case is not related to any of those old cases, but you should know this for context. Now you’ve been given clearance to get access to the case.” 

“So we can get the files?” Hotch was getting impatient with all of this protocol, if they were in danger they had to act fast. 

“Not yet, we actually need to decrypt them.” 

“I’m sure our technical analyst can help with that.” 

“If only those files were digital.” Zoe intervened.

“Really paper files thought the CIA would be more tech proficient.” That was worrying for Rossi, if there was no digital trace of the case it meant that they will never know if the intel they are getting is complete.  
“We knew that the organization followed a strict line of command and the high ups kept everything secret, it was a great wave of lies, different groups joined for different causes, only a small group knew about the real endgame and how they were going to achieve it. We wanted to avoid them reforming with the same strength, we thought that some members may look into the CIA for blueprints of their own master plan.” the other guy, Michael explained. 

“We divided the case in parts and each of us only got one. We had the responsibility to encrypt our piece of information. That way if anyone got interested in the crazy quest of putting it back together they would be on our radar before they even got any close to figuring out.” 

Hotch was impressed by what Reid just said and it really gave a lot of insight about the dynamics of the team. All of them had great autocontrol but it wasn’t obvious at first glance. Maybe that’s why they were involved in covert missions. No one would think that they could achieve that kind of work. After that brief interruption Luca continued explaining. 

“And to get them back will take some time, in the meantime” he grabbed the control, the photos of two women appeared on the screen” meet Veronica and Ruth, they were part of the high circle, the ones who called the shots. Both extremely intelligent individuals. They were our main targets on the old case. After weeks of tracking down these guys we got a lead that took us to one of their safehouses, Veronica was killed in the operation, but Ruth managed to escape and literally vanished. We think that she may be the one behind the two murders, avenging the death of her partner, getting revenge while reforming the circle.” Luca looked at Clara who continued. 

“The thing is that we don’t know who she may be recruiting and how. They may use a new way to get their followers since we know everything about the last one. There is one thing that you need to know about the circle, they don’t seek plain terror, they have an ideology.” 

“How so?” 

It was Spencer who answered Rossi’s question.

“Well to a certain point they fill up all the categories of a cult. Everything from hierarchy to the manipulation of ideals. But what they divert is in their main goal. See, they actually think that they are preserving the greatness of mankind. They believe that the world is being led by stupidity, that democracy signified the destruction of the world. That’s why they intervene to regain control of the situation.” 

“So they are a bunch of assholes who think they are better than anyone else.”

“That’s how I used to describe them, Morgan” Michael said in a lighter tone“ the problem is that they are highly intelligent assholes.” 

“With a love with explosives.” said Clara shuddering at the memory of all those panic moments. 

“That too. Remember that time in Houston I swear that was supposed to be my day.” 

“If we could get back on track please,” the director interrupted, knowing fully well that it was not the time to open that pandora box, “these are the last locations we have on them, the ones we knew, and these is the list of every member of the circle we got in custody, I’m going to allow you to interview them. Look for signs of recruitment, or any hope that their cause it’s still alive. Our number one priority is finding Ruth and the only way to do that is finding their second in commands. Agent Hotchner the subjects have been brought to these facilities to conduct the interviews, I would like you to start as soon as possible. Menrva you work on getting those files back, we will have to return to their origins. Of course this still is a highly delicate operation, no information exchanged here can leave this room, they have proven proficient in convincing great people to do terrible things. That’s why all of you will be staying on the premises. If you need to get something of importance from your homes I will send agents to retrieve it.” The last part was directed more to the Menrva than the BAU. 

“Let’s get to work.”


	4. Chapter 4

“Shouldn’t we be doing more productive things, it’s not like we have a crazy organization to take down”

“You can tone down the sarcasm Spence, we can’t do anything until they come back with our things.” Then he smiled and added playfully. “Id rumors are true they say you botched your qualifications once, this session may be useful for you.” 

Spencer just rolled his eyes. In these moments he really felt happy about being back. He remembers afternoons of them hanging out, moments where they were able to relax and act their age. Luca and him were in the gym waiting for the rest. The director had asked them to do a refreshing training while they waited for the paper files.   
Spencer got up to look for the book he had discarded beside his satchel bag. Suddenly he felt Luca move to jump him from behind. He was able to duck and switch his direction grabbing Luca’s arm and throwing him to the floor. 

“Now who is the one who needs training.” He said laughing, in a matter of seconds Luca was back on his feet and rounding him. Spence got into sparring stance, he was not going to back up a challenge. In a matter of seconds they were full sparring throwing punches and kicks in a way that almost seemed choreographed. After years they could still get into that rhythm. Suddenly Reid saw an opening and was able to pin Luca to the ground. He put his weight on him, their faces were really close, they were both breathing hard. Spencer snapped out of the trance they seemed to be in. He pushed back but didn’t let go of Luca. He was basically sitting on his thighs. 

“Sorry what were you saying about my training, Ohhhh you can’t talk because you are still recovering your breath, you are getting old.” 

Luca just smirked back at him, and in that second Spencer knew that he was about to do something. Soon enough he moved his legs up to throw Spencer to the side, but before he could fall he grabbed him and turned them so now Luca was up while Spencer was pinned down. 

“Well I don’t make rookie mistakes like letting go.”

“If I wanted you dead you would not have had the time to pull that move.” He said while glaring up. Luca just smirked back at him. 

“Aw don’t tease me like that beautiful.” 

“And I thought that we had gotten past all this sexual tension.” 

“Don’t get jealous Michael I can also kick your ass.” 

“Boys behave, and Spence it doesn’t look like you were the one winning.” 

Luca let him go, Spencer remained lying just so he could show the finger to Clara. Luca offered his hand and got him up, he looked like he wanted to tell him something before the others interrupted, in the end he gave up on it and let go of Reid’s hand. He will have to ask him about it later. After that they just went over the review training. Spencer felt like it was a surreal situation, a part of him felt like a normal Wednesday seven years ago, the other knew that a lot of things had changed since then, they had seen a lot of stuff that had changed them over the years. There was something about that lost familiarity that reminded him why he used to like this job. Sadly it also reminded him of why he had to stop. 

When they stopped he decided to check his phone, he saw a text from Hotch asking him to meet. He decided to call him. 

“Hey Hotch.”

“Spencer I think you owe us a talk.”

“Yeah… where are you guys I’ll meet you there.” 

“In the cafeteria.”

Spencer grimaced, he would prefer to have that talk somewhere else. And somehow Hotch was able to read his expression through the phone.

“We have a common area outside of our rooms, maybe we can meet there.”

“Ok, I’ll be there in five.” After that he hung up. 

“The BAU?” Zoe asked.

“I have some explaining to do.” 

“Do you want us to accompany you?” Zoe had always been like that, super protective of the team, she had a great emotional maturity and had become an anchor to everyone, she was the one who always offered her advice. 

“I probably should do this alone.” 

“If what we have heard about them is true, and if your admiration for them is anything to go by, they love you no matter what.” Spencer just answered with a smile and left to start walking down numerous corridors until he reached the housing building. Just when he was out of the door he doubted himself, he was dreading the moment, he didn’t know what to say, If it had been anyone else it would be more simple, but this was his family. And even if he really had no other option what if they start seeing him differently. If he continued down this train of thought he would remain in front of the door the rest of his life, better to “band-aid” it. He opened the door to a circular room with some couches in the middle and a bunch of doors on the walls. All of the BAU were sitting on the different couches waiting for him. 

“I’m just gonna leave this in my room and grab a hoodie.” He signaled to his bag and walked to the door he was sure should be his room. 

When he got back he sitted on a singular couch that was free. There were a few seconds of uncomfortable silence. He really didn’t know what to say. 

“Ehhh I don’t know what you want me to say. Or where to begin actually.” 

“The truth Reid.” 

“Maybe start from the beginning.” In this moment thank god for Emily who seemed to understand his situation. 

“When I was seventeen getting my Phds I was contacted by the CIA to be part of a training program, at that time it wasn’t a job or anything like that, it was actual training, not only physical but also interrogation, psychology, stuff like that. It was a project to train young people and get them into the CIA. When I turned eighteen they assembled the team. We were all in the process of finishing our degrees so having the opportunity to work in a lab with proper funding was inviting. We just needed to complete a more specific training for missions. It was a great way to put our brains to use, or at least that’s what Roger used to say.” he finished with a sad smile, remembering how he had been a mentor for him, how he helped him feel like he belonged there, that he had the potential to be a great agent. 

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Morgan looked genuinely hurt about the whole thing.

“There was no point in it, all I could say was that I worked as an intel analyst for the CIA. You know how they are. More realistically, after all that happened I wanted a fresh start, leave this life behind, and while I knew that I wanted out of the CIA, I couldn’t live knowing that bad people were out there and I was doing nothing. When Gideon contacted me it was the answer to all of my problems, I could continue to use my abilities to help people in a totally different contest, without the politics and the secrecy. I wanted to do it right, without any of the prejudices that came with me being a transfer under suspicious circumstances.” 

Morgan was surprised by the answer, he really didn’t expect that, actually he was preparing for the whole confidential bullshit. 

“How much of the Spencer we know was a character?”Of course JJ being one of his closest would worry if he was just playing a role to fit in. 

“Actually not much.”

“No offence Spence but I don’t think CIA agents refuse to do their physicals.”

“The fact that I know how to combat does not mean that I enjoyed it, you can ask the others I absolutely despised training sessions, still do actually. Now if the question is were I good in them, of course or they would have fired me a lot sooner. Did I botch my gun qualifications on purpose? Yes. Did I avoid physical activity like the plague in front of you so I wasn’t asked to participate in training exercises also true. But if the moment of life of death came I acted to the best of my capabilities. I didn’t create a new personality, I just switched back to who I was before joining the CIA.” 

“Wait, you just botched your gun qualifications to not be on training sessions?” Spencer realized that maybe that wasn’t the wisest thing to say since Hotch looked particularly mad at that detail. 

“It was more of an opportunity thing that served both purposes.” Hotch gave him a look to explain. “There was a mafia group in which we had infiltrated that believed that one of their traitors was in this area of the FBI, now they were expecting a top agent, they weren’t really looking for young agents who weren’t allowed to carry a gun. If conveniently it allowed me to propel the idea that I didn’t like working out.”

“Reid what the fuck man.” 

“What Morgan, I had the chance and I took it. You can ask the others.” 

“I think we are getting distracted from the real topic at hand.” Rossi interrupted. “What I don’t understand it’s why they dissolved you guys if everything was going so well.” 

“It was really more complicated than that, after the whole thing with Veronica the director decided that it would be better to send us in different ways.” he hoped he wasn’t giving away too much, this wasn’t a conversation that he wanted to have right now. 

“Did you guys know this Veronica.” Of course Emily had caught up. 

“Why would you say that.” 

“I don’t know, feels like a charged subject.” 

“It was a long and complicated mission and I think it didn’t have the ending we expected, but we have time to go over all the details of the case. I just wanted to say that I understand if you are mad at me for lying, or for hiding, and because of the lie my word may have lost all meaning for you but I swear that I never acted in front of you guys, you are my family and I will always consider you as such. The BAU made me recover the feelings that I had lost and the love for my job. I don’t regret leaving the CIA because I found my second family.” 

With that Penelope got up from her seat and fell beside him giving him a hug. “Boy Wonder I can’t believe you managed to stay under my radar but I don’t care. We all have a questionable past where we made questionable choices.” Spencer knew if there was someone who would have his back was Penelope. For the rest of the team he knew that they would come around, he just had to give them time. He will just have to be patient and try to answer their questions as truthfully as possible. 

Hotch was about to say something when Michael barged into the room. 

“I know you are having your heartfelt moment but files are here Reid, so move your ass.”


End file.
